Do our survey – How should the Braddon Club site be used?

The Canberra District Rugby League Football Club plans to demolish the Braddon Club – which is located on Cooyong Street, between Donaldson and Torrens Streets – and build a residential/commercial development of up to seven storeys.

From the 1920s until 1998 the site was part of the Northbourne Oval. In 1998 the Territory wrote off unpaid rents, excised the Braddon Club site from the oval, and granted it to the ACT Leagues Club for five cents per year on condition that it be used only for the purposes of a club with ancillary auditorium and office uses. In 2006 the lease was sold to the Canberra District Rugby League Football Club (CDRL) for $420,000. In 2008 it was re-zoned from Restricted Access Recreation to Commercial.

In 2010 ACTPLA determined that the lease was “concessional” (i.e. less than market value). CDRL’s appeal to ACAT was rejected, but CDRL still maintains that the lease was not concessional. It estimates that it could sell the current lease for $305,000, but if the concessional status was removed it could sell it for $620,000. If the concessional status is removed, then arguably CDRL stands to make a windfall gain of $315,000 – and Canberra’s ratepayers stand to suffer a $315,000 loss – unless CDRL pays for the increased value of the lease. But CDRL claims that payment of the additional value would represent a ‘windfall for the ACT Government’.

The revenue of up to $238,000 from the site’s 170 car parking spaces represents an annual return on investment of around 50%. Nevertheless CDRL claims that Braddon Club is not financially viable, and has closed it.

The main options for the site are:

A. Club: Retain the site as a club with ancillary auditorium and office uses; buildings limited to 1,900 sq m gross floor area and offices limited to 450 sq m; with paving, trees, landscaping, lighting and car parking.

5 Comments

Why should the Braddon Club’s Leaseholder not be permitted to go ahead with their retail commercial and residential redevelopment, provided that ACT PLA approve their proposals AND that they Pay the consequent redevelopment fees for the change of lease ?? I am not happy with the NCCC’s ‘survey’ format since it needs a respondent to interpret which ‘option’ is applicable to this viewpoint. Also, my distance from where I live in 2602 to the Braddon Club is it seems, inappropriately to be used to rate or to discount my opinion in this matter. I trust that the ACT Legislative Council may get to review this whole process if NCCC try to be the arbiters of “good taste” in Civic’s on-going redevelopment. And, Yes, I am a Raiders’ Club member.

Option B. The current state of the area is very poor. Plans to make it into a recreation area may not work. Haig Park is close by and that hardly attracts families or recreational use. Having owned a shop in Garema Place for 20 years I have seen a lot of change in the Civic/Braddon area. The majority of the positives coming through the increase of people living close to the city in apartments which has brought a lot of life and vitality to the area especially after dark.